


tempestuous

by uncleanakin (unclemoriarty)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Lightsaber Battles, Romance, based on the Hand Scene in the trailer, bonus points for anyone who catches the pride and prejudice reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 12:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13007328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unclemoriarty/pseuds/uncleanakin
Summary: tempestuous: characterized by strong and turbulent or conflicting emotionThere is a push and pull to the universe that will always exist: Light and Dark. Life and Death. Kylo and Rey.Giving and taking, they alternate.Always at odds, but still in harmony.Yet sometimes, not so harmonious.***Rey and Kylo meet again on the battlefield.





	tempestuous

**Author's Note:**

> after i started writing this, i came across the song ["rewrite the stars"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdjR2lvIfJ4) and turns out that song is exactly what this fic is about??
> 
> this is my last reylo fic that i'll post before i watch tlj on friday! asdfsgdh i can't wait
> 
> oh and make sure you catch the pride and prejudice reference! (hint: it's from the 2005 film)

He saw her from afar, her figure made hazy by the smoke and embers filtering through the trees. Like the first time they had seen each other.

Their eyes met over the blue swirl of her lightsaber cutting into a stormtrooper. Dark circles were under her eyes, standing out against her tanned skin. Identical marks under his.

It was easy—too easy—to draw nearer to her, but his steps dragged. Hers did too. One after another, she skillfully fought and defeated every opponent in her path, but when she finished she was already scanning the forest, for someone else to fight. _Anyone_ else… He would be lying if he said he wasn’t doing the same. Funny how he had thought of this meeting in anticipation, but now the idea only filled him with dread.

Eventually, he reached her. Or did she reach him? He almost reached _out_ to her, but stopped. If she noticed, she didn’t say. She didn’t say anything. Their bond spoke enough for them, buzzing and humming along with their stilled sabers, a tension growing thicker with the seconds that passed.

Seconds. Were they minutes? Years? No time had passed, but it had been long in passing.

Her gaze used to burn. What had happened? He almost missed that pain, that anger. It made things easier. Made fighting easier. He couldn’t name exactly what he saw in her eyes now, but he felt it. Of course he did. They felt everything, and felt it together. Now, the ease with which she had sliced through ranks of stormtroopers was replaced by tight shoulders and a heavy arm, a heavy will. He knew this. Of course he did. He felt it too.

It was she who made the first move, swinging her lightsaber over her head. So very like her. He deflected. So very like him. An old dance; they knew the steps intimately. One they should have finished a long time ago. They had been told to, but they had never been any good at doing what they were told.

The fire burned brighter in her eyes now, but a soon-fading flame—a tired one, a desperate one, nothing like the eager flames that were consuming the trees around them. She struck harder at him, pleads in each blow. He deflected, redirected. She hit again. Again and again. Deflect. Redirect. His red blade only moved in response. Another strike, sloppy this time. The blade of his weapon twisted around hers, sending it out of her hand with a flick of his wrist. Hers extinguished in the dirt, his in his hand.

She didn’t stop. From her, he hadn’t expected any less. She stumbled _at_ him and swung her fist, not bothering to keep proper form as if even with a light touch she could knock him down with one blow. (And she could. She had when they first met and he had never really gotten back up.)

He caught her fist easily as she crashed into him. She pulled at his grip and he let go, but her rough hands now grabbed at his tunic, at the edges of his cape. Balled fists and eyes shut tight, she pulled at his clothes, now hit his chest with the little strength she had left. He let her. He held her.

Soon enough, breathless sobs turned to quiet tears. Having given up all pretenses of wanting to fight, she leaned her forehead against his chest, yet not resting. “It was never meant to be like this,” she whispered weakly.

He pulled back just far enough to look in her eyes. “But it _is_ meant to be.” His gloved thumb wiped a tear from her cheek. “You feel it too.”

She sighed shakily and leaned into his palm. “Yeah.” She sniffed. “Yes, I do.” The faintest semblance of a bitter smile curved her lips. “And I hate it. I really do.”

He nodded, a tear pricking at his own eye. “I don’t blame you.”

“And you don’t?”

“Don’t what?”

“Hate it.” She reached up and slowly pulled his hand from her face, yet didn’t let go of it. “Hate… this.”

“No,” he said, twining his fingers with hers. “I used to. Until…” His eyes searched her face. “You don’t really hate this, do you?”

She pressed her lips together and looked down, stepping back out of his embrace. An explosion boomed farther off in the forest. Startled, she looked at the new plumes of smoke rising above the foliage, the embers fluttering down, and then back at him. “I… I need to go. I can’t be here.”

“Wait.” He stepped closer, acting on impulse. “Come with me. Please. Let’s finish this. We can leave, start anew. No sides, no more fighting, no war, just us. Just us. Like it’s meant to be. Be with me.” He held out his hand.

Pain welled up in their bond along with fresh tears in her eyes. “You know I can’t. I-That can’t happen. You know that. We can’t just leave! It’s not easy like that.”

“We can make it easy.” Desperation bled into his voice, but he couldn’t hold it back. “We can make it work. We’ll-we’ll get new names. Disguises, even. Go to the edge of the galaxy. I know where no one can find us. We’ll be safe there. We can be together there. Just us.”

“But it’s not just us! The galaxy isn’t just us. There are more people that matter than just us. People that need help and I can help them. I know I can. And if I just go and abandon them… I can’t be selfish like that, I just can’t.” She shook her head emphatically, the movement almost masking the fresh gloss to her eyes.

His outstretched hand clenched into a fist and a thick branch above splintered, falling in pieces beside them. “What’s wrong with being a little selfish?! Kriff, we’ve—” he began pacing the length of the tiny clearing— “we’ve been selfless our whole lives! Both of our lives, governed by something out of our control. We’ve never been able to do what we want, take what is ours. Is it so wrong to want to do that? We finally have something of our own, something we can choose. Why would you throw that choice away?”

“I’m not.” Despite the determination in her tone, her voice trembled. “I’m making it.” Stretching her hand out, she called her saber to her and clipped it to her belt.

“No. Sweetheart, please, don’t do this. We’ll make this work.”

“Have you forgotten that it’s not just me who has to make this choice? You act like I’m the only one who can’t do this but what about your master, that supreme leader? You think he’s going to just let you fly away to some distant planet and not go after you? Not punish you? Your hands are just as tied as mine.”

He ground his teeth, clenching and unclenching his fists. She was right, of course. He didn’t care what could happen to him, but if she got targeted… He would never let that happen.

“Nothing will happen to either of us,” she replied to the frenzied thoughts he was transmitting over their bond. “Not if we end this before he does.”

He barked a bitter laugh. “End this? Is there really anything to end? You’ve never given us a chance to even start anything.”

“Because we’ve never had a chance.” Her voice was strangely serene, detached. “And we are never going to get one. It has to be this way. For both of us.”

He stared at her. “How are you so calm about this?! How can you stand there and say that and not feel a thing?!” Even though their bond surged, roiled, teemed with frustration, anger, anguish—and more—it seemed like all of that emotion came only from his side. Did she not care at all?

She sighed. “You know I feel everything that you do.”

“But what of how _you_ feel? Is any of it your own?”

“It has to be this way,” she repeated.

“Please.”

 “It’s not up to us to decide how things must be. ‘Everything is as—‘“

“‘—as the Force wills it’?” He scoffed. “If you really believed that, you would come with me. Follow the will of the Force. Search your feelings.” He placed his hands on her shoulders.

She shook her head and moved out of reach. “I can’t trust my feelings. They led me to you.”

“Where you belong. With me. And I with you. Don’t fight this any longer. It’s been so long. Aren’t you tired of fighting?”

A sigh escaped her, deep and long. “I just want this to end.”

“As do I. Let’s end this. Let’s go.”

Her head shook once more. “Not in that way.”

“Tell me: is there any hope? Any at all?”

The smile she gave him was a muted one but he instantly felt her warmth through the bond. “There’s always hope.”

“But for us,” he pressed. “Is there any hope for us?” The tendrils of his side of their bond pulled at hers, his very connection to the Force—to her—trying in every way possible to keep her close.

Her smile faded, making him cold once more, despite the flames advancing on the hill towards them. “We’ll see.” She suddenly coughed, waving the smoke away from her. “Listen, we need to go now.”

“Together?” he tried.

Her gaze on him was soft, sad. The firelight caught in the corners of her brimming eyes. Dry leaves crunched under her foot as she took a step farther back.

“Wait!” He reached his hand out once more. She paused and took it, wary. “I…” He swallowed, but his mouth was still dry.

She waited.

“I love you.” A last, desperate attempt to keep her there, yes, but the truth. Oh, it was the truth.

Her eyes widened, then blinked back tears. In a sudden, swift movement, her other hand joined their clasped ones and pulled off his glove. Fingers closing around his, she lifted his hand up to her lips and ghosted a kiss on his knuckles. A hot drop fell on his skin. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and left.

He stood there, watching her go. It was what needed to be done. But it hurt so much. He understood what she had meant now. He did hate this.

He brought his hand to his lips and pressed his where hers had. Only her fleeting warmth and the taste of salt lingered.

He saw her from afar, her figure made hazy by the smoke and embers filtering through the trees. Like the first time they had seen each other.

And now—had that been the last?

 

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know if you liked this!  
> and if you have any star wars blogs (bonus if you post finnrey and finnrose!!) feel free to add the url at the bottom (or top) of your comment! i wanna find more blogs to follow :)  
>   
> [talk to me on tumblr](http://uncleanakin.tumblr.com)  
>   
> ALso idk if anyone noticed but i chose not to use kylo and rey's names in this fic for ~creative reasons~. did that work for you? did the fic have a different feel bc of the lack of names? or was it weird w/o them?  
> Please let me know in the comments!


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